1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
For printing of a fee-based content (image data) such as a copyrighted material, some printing systems allow a user who pays a fair price for the content to print the content only the number of times corresponding to the paid price. Further, there are charging systems that allow a user to print data as long as the number of printed sheets or the number of times of printing is within the limitation corresponding to a price paid by the user.
Generally, such a printing system prevents a user from printing more than the limited number of sheets or the limited number of times of printing. For example, a possible method for realizing this prevention is to prepare a special application to manage limitation information and printing history information by this special application, and cause the special application to no longer allow printing of a fee-based content (image data) once the number of times of printing or the number of printed sheets exceeds the limitation.
Further, instead of preparing a special application, there is proposed a system of using a printer driver to maintain the limitation information and the print history information and prohibit a printing operation upon exceedance of a limitation, such as the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-141100.
On the other hand, as a function of storing print data generated by a printer driver into an information processing apparatus when data is printed via a general-purpose application, there are provided the function of “outputting the data to a file” and the function of “saving the document after printing”.
The function of “outputting the data to a file” is a function for enabling print data generated by a printer driver to be stored in a file without any change made thereto by outputting the data to a port called a “file port” without transmitting the data to a printing apparatus. The file generated by this function “outputting the data to a file” is print data interpretable by the printing apparatus. Therefore, use of a general-purpose application capable of transmitting the generated file to the printing apparatus allows the data to be printed by the printing apparatus without an intervention of, for example, the special application or the printer driver.
On the other hand, the function of “saving the document after printing” is a function of an operation system for saving print data generated by a printer driver in an information processing apparatus even after the data is printed by a printing apparatus. This function “saving the document after printing” allows the print data saved in the information processing apparatus to be reused. Also in this case, the data can be transmitted to the printing apparatus without an intervention of the special application or the printer driver.
However, even with a mechanism for limiting the number of times of printing or the number of printed sheets and preventing data from being printed beyond the limitations as mentioned above, a user can print data as much as the user wants without being affected by the limitation, by utilizing the function of “outputting the data to a file” or “saving the document after printing”.
In other words, print data generated within the limitation imposed by the special application and the printer driver is stored in the information processing apparatus by the printing system that can operate beyond the control of the special application and the printer driver as mentioned above. This stored print data can be transmitted to the printing apparatus without an intervention of the special application or the printer driver, and, therefore, the print data can be printed by the printing apparatus as much as a user wants without being subject to the limitation by the special application and the printer driver.
On the other hand, normally, these functions for storing print data are independently managed by the printing system, which is in charge of the entire print control, with use of the operation system. The printing system receives a print request from various applications, and generates print data by requesting the printer driver assigned to the specified printing apparatus to generate the print data. This is the same at the time of storing print data, and the special application and the printer driver do not involve the processing of storing print data. Therefore, even if a system is configured to manage the limitation information, no disclosure is provided about a method for preventing data from being printed by the printing apparatus as much as a user wants.